Keith Urban, a four-time Grammy Award winner who has sold more than 15 million albums, will return to American Idol XIII as a judge.

IDOL hopefuls will meet Emmy Award-nominated host Ryan Seacrest and the judges, including Urban, when the auditions travel to Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Detroit, Omaha, Salt Lake City and San Francisco. American Idol XIII debuts in January 2014 on FOX.

Fox is in trouble. X-Factor only scored a 2.1 last night for the debut. It'll probably recover a bit tonight thanks to a 2 hours episode, but it'll be lucky if it ever sniffs a 3.0 this year. The only competition last night was Big Brother and the lowly Million Second Quiz.

Considering the retread judges announced for Idol, I expect another 25-30% drop for it in season 13. Fox had better hope that The Following didn't alienate a bunch of viewers with that dumb finale.

Based on what i read on Facebook, i see a big jump in ratings for Idol. A ton of people have posted that they stopped watching last year due to Niki and Mariah, but they are now looking forward to having J-Lo back, and Harry Connick too. I know for me personally i watched last year, but am looking forward to the judges more this year.

I wonder if Connick is not much too "adult" for the desired demographic. I personally thought him in the top eschelon of the mentors, but that was just me. His type music is far from the oft mentioned "current," whatever that is.

I wonder if Connick is not much too "adult" for the desired demographic. I personally thought him in the top eschelon of the mentors, but that was just me. His type music is far from the oft mentioned "current," whatever that is.

His music may not be current, but he is attractive to the girls and thats important on a show like this!!

Harry Connick has consistently been one of the best guest mentors that appear on the show. He is both smart and really funny. The judging panel will be completely different this season without all the heavy drama and bad vibes of last year. I expect a much lighter and funny environment, much like the judges on The Voice. The new producers may have modeled this panel on Blake, Christina, and Adam, but it is a proven formula.

Having said that, this show still has big challenges ahead with music selection, the loss of Jimmy Iovine, and the dead weight of Randy Jackson still haunting the show. If they can find some interesting contestants that the audience can get invested in, this could be a good year for Idol.

Based on what i read on Facebook, i see a big jump in ratings for Idol. A ton of people have posted that they stopped watching last year due to Niki and Mariah, but they are now looking forward to having J-Lo back, and Harry Connick too. I know for me personally i watched last year, but am looking forward to the judges more this year.

The ratings plummeted in J-Lo's second season on the show-that's why they fired her. Bringing her back was the worst decision that those new producers have made so far. It's obvious that they are trying to attract the Hispanic audience, but that approach doesn't seem to have worked on X-Factor. I also didn't realize that Iovine left the show. That's probably why the producers were trying so hard to find an industry/producer type for one of the three judging spots.

Connick was a last second replacement-ironically, he'll easily be the best judge. I just don't know that he'll do much to help the ratings. That, and going back to three judges are the only positive moves that I have seen so far. I am dubious about this "big jump in ratings" you refer to.

Regardless of the quality of the show, X-Factor's drop is a strong indication that the singing shows are continuing to lose their appeal. I'll also be surprised if The Voice doesn't suffer a sizable drop in the ratings, even though X-Factor is a lot more like Idol than The Voice.

This might also be an early indication that the broadcast networks are going to have another big drop in audience.

Shedrock, music selection as you say is so important. They need to get more relavant. They want to make them sing Beatles songs, okay, they can get away with that. But crapola like Burt Bacharrach night, give me a break, what young people are gonna like that? Hell, i dont even like that.

As to J-Lo getting un-popular, i think the key with her is that she attracks people at first but then her being too nice to the contestants and really not giving any critisizm hurts her. If they can get her to be more honest that would help a lot. Man, Idol needs Simon on the judges panel.

I really hope they stick to a 3-judge panel and dont use guest judges to make it 4 people.

They need to get more relavant. They want to make them sing Beatles songs, okay, they can get away with that. But crapola like Burt Bacharrach night, give me a break, what young people are gonna like that? Hell, i dont even like that.

I'm guessing their thinking is certain potential viewers are going to or not watch regardless of various themes. So they go after the fringe market by appealing to them. Now whether they alienate their core audience I can't say as I certainly don't fit into it or their desired market.